Along EU Borders

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Types of Operations

General

Frontex
Joint Operations take place at three types of border – sea, land and air. Each
operation is based on risk analysis and uniquely tailored to the circumstances
identified by the agency in one of its risk analysis products.

Sea

As
with all border control, sea border activities are divided into border checks
(conducted at the border crossing points at sea ports) and border surveillance,
which is conducted at sea. Frontex, the European Border and Coast Guard Agency,
coordinated joint operations at sea represent Europe’s biggest search and rescue
operation. Every year thousands of migrants attempt to reach the EU by sea,
often travelling in dangerously over-crowded and unseaworthy boats.

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International law obliges all vessels
to provide assistance to any persons found in distress, making search and
rescue a priority for everyone operating at sea. Frontex’s role in search and
rescue operations is enshrined in its Regulation. Frontex is obliged to
provide technical and operational assistance to Member States and non-EU
countries in support of such operations that may arise during border
surveillance operations at sea.

Search and rescue is a specific
objective of the operational plan of every Frontex sea operation. It is
important to underline that these operations are always coordinated by the
national Maritime Rescue Coordination Centres (MRCC), which orders vessels that
are either the closest to the incident or the most capable ones to assist in
the rescue.

Officers deployed by Frontex at the border
crossing points at sea ports play an important role in helping conduct border
checks and assist in the registration process of irregular migrants. They help national
authorities in collecting finger prints and determine the nationality of
migrants during screening interviews. Some of them also gather information
about the criminal networks involved in people smuggling and trafficking.

Land

Border
checks are conducted at border crossing points set up at road and rail points
of entry to the EU. In addition to these checks, border guards deployed in
Frontex operations conduct border surveillance along land borders.

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More than
3,500 km of land borders run along the EU’s eastern frontier, from the Arctic
circle in northern Finland to the Evros river region of Greece. Monitoring the
migratory flows and reacting accordingly to changing trends at these diverse
land borders is a constant challenge. Enhancing the effectiveness of overall
border control measures, as well as maximising surveillance and situational
awareness by focussing efforts at precise points of increased pressure, are all
part of running land border operations.

Frontex
also helps ensure a constant exchange of expertise and experience among
national border guard officers. The range of skills used at the land borders
varies from detection of persons hidden in vehicles at border crossing points to
patrols with dogs or night vision observation. In so-called “second-line”
activities expertise covers detection of falsified documents or interviewing
undocumented persons to determine their nationality.

As with all
Frontex operational activities land operations are based on risk analysis
reports and when a need is identified, operations are generally run in phases
with the duration, place and time being determined close to implementation.

Frontex also has goals for future development
concerning land borders. One of these is increased cooperation with customs
authorities. Frontex actively participates in information sharing and other
integration activities with the Customs Cooperation Working Party (CCWP) and
has been involved in increasing cooperation between border-control authorities
and customs as well as with national and EU authorities, the Commission and the
European Ant-Fraud office (OLAF).

Air

Joint
Operations at airports present unique challenges. The point of entry is usually
a passport-control booth and hardly anybody can enter undetected. For this
reason alone, international airports represent a specific range of border
management issues.

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The
methods used by irregular migrants are also different at airports. Some people
intending to stay illegally in the EU use false documents or well-practised
techniques under the supervision of criminal facilitators to deceive border
officers. And then there are the sheer numbers. According to the Frontex risk
analysis, as many as 45% of Europe’s 271 million entry/exits per year are from
countries “at risk” of being an irregular migration source. If only 1 percent
of these 121 million passengers are migrating irregularly, that means as many
as 1.2 million irregular migrants could enter the EU every year through its
airports.

But air border
operations are about more than passport control. Activities before, during and
after passport control are essential to ensuring a secure border. This includes
constant information-gathering and analysis of methods used by criminals and
other intelligence, effective information exchange between airports, airlines
and Member States, specialist officer training and the use of cutting edge
technology to detect forged documents and other deceptions.

Frontex has established a reliable system of
information gathering, analysis and exchange with Europol and other partners.
Frontex receives up-to-date information from more than 130 airports and
provides a weekly European overview of the situation at Europe’s external air
borders, along with as rapid alerts on new trends and false documents.